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As you may or may not know, my son and I have a on again off again study of Canada going. Each year we start in a different place, go like mad for a while and then things change or get forgotten or complaints about methodology start and we stop. I want to STOP that cycle.

To the end this year I bought a comprehensive history of Canada. It's a fairly boring text but comprehensive. I thought I could EASILY supplement and I can! WOOT WOOT!!!!

To go along with this book I plan to use a variety of hands-on learning options and worksheets and discoveries that I have picked up around the web BUT I have found THREE (and there will more than likely be more).. areas in SchoolhouseTeachers.com that I will be able to use.

A big part of my hope is, as we finish each province, to use an artist study to capture something about the province that we wish to remember. There are 5 and 10 day lesson plans in this course and you can jump around as you see fit.

Welcome to the Virtual Curriculum Fair 2017 week two. This week we talk all about language arts, how one plays around with words. Our host is the lovely Susan. You can learn more about the VFCF2017 right here.

I have to admit, it took a while to figure out a system to study Language Arts in our home.
Knowing that my boy (like his mother) tells stories as easily as breathing I thought, why not use that.

So I grabbed this freebie book from the library discard pile and off we set.

First he needs to draw a picture of the story he wants to write. He spent days at this, getting all the details right and NO, I'm not allowed to show you. :)

Then you develop your main character. This was harder than the lad anticipated. He thought he could just do yellow, pointed ears character. Then I asked : so how tall is he? Does he eat meat or vegetables? What makes him laugh? Does he ever cry? Does he have friends or is he a loner?

Once he had the character nailed down a bit better he moved on to writing his story. Bit by bit he adds to it. And bit by bit he learns. Every day a 1/2 hour of work is required.

Each time he gets a chapter done, we sit down and we edit it together. We make the changes right in his story, discussing spelling errors, word usage, sentence structure and all that fun stuff.

And you know what? He's learning. It's not a battle. It's a sitting down and talking and learning together. Sometimes I'll read a sentence and not know what it wrong with it, so I'll ask other folks and they'll show me what's wrong and then the lad and I both learn something new.

It's good to do this. :)

I have to admit, I getting curious about what treasure his character is going to discover...

Anyways, this book has a variety of stories one can write out, from adventures to mysteries.
Draw it out, write it out chapter by chapter and just work your way through it. We'll be working our way through it for a good time to come yet. :)

I admit that we are taking our time with it, and we did get side-tracked when I was ill so are rather behind, but a new week is dawning and a lad will learn and grow, and I'll be there with him.

This post is part of the Virtual Curriculum Fair. I do hope that you'll join us in reading through what some of us have put together. Here's the list of the gang. :)

Please visit my fellow homeschool bloggers who are writing about Playing with Words this week:

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About Me

I am centered by the love of God and family. Smiles are brought about being a Writer, Poet, Hiker and reader. Growth occurs as I educate my son, raise him up in the fear of the Lord, love up on my critters and live as a pastor's wife.